I sit here on a Saturday afternoon feeling slightly nostalgic.I sit here thinking about the amazing holidays I have had so far, the wonderful people I have met and friendships I have continued to nurture and love.

People I love and wish were not so far away….Time… wishing there was more of it to do, see and create things that I feel my soul needs to full fill.Sleep…. Is it really that necessary? I feel I need to find a way to function to my full ability on only 1 hours’ worth of sleep. Or maybe sleep a full 24 hours and then that would last me a full 7 days of work, creating….. living.

That time of the year has come where I think about what an amazing summer I have had and wish it could be like this 365 days of the year. That entire year I have waited for this one season and now it is almost over. I make a conscience note to put as much effort into autumn and winter as I do in the summer.

All the life experiences, moments and memories we have created together. I want to remember it all. I don’t want to forget a single thing. I want to store it all in a special sack I keep in my wardrobe where only the absolutely best moments get kept, that way they will never ever be forgotten and I could rummage in my sake for memories I’d love to re live and see and hug certain special people whenever I wanted.

From seeing old friends, making new friendships, overcoming my fears and arguing/ disagreeing with a dear friend yet all I want to do is relive it all over again!

Summer starts with my dear friends Francesca and Cristian getting hitched at the end of July. The afternoon was an absolute sweat fest with it being over 30 degrees in the church. Just looking at all the guys in their suits made me seem to sweat 10 times more and fanning myself with warm air with a hand fan didn’t help, but seemed like warm air was better than none at all.

Most of my friends know that I suffer from Vertigo and one scorching afternoon the group decided to go visit Scala dei turchi which is well known for its white cliff. Our new friends (Frank and Briana) were visiting from the states and Briana had never seen it. All I can say is Briana got the extreme cliff experience. Not only did she see it we all got to climb it.

10 mins into the walk down I realise holly crap this doesn’t look good, is it too late to go back?Foot paths with only enough room for one, slippy, no grip, no support and absolutely nothing to hold on to. In between the moments when I wasn’t crying I really did consider for my sake and everyone else’s that its better I just throw myself off the cliff as I was that scared! One guy who was going the opposite direction to us even said ‘Hey guys it gets worst that way’ … ‘WHAT!... what you mean worst?... seriously guys.. ‘It was great knowing you all!’.Luca and Cristian even walked with me holding my sweating hands because there were moments when I couldn’t go on and thought I am sitting here until you get me a helicopter to get me OFF THIS GOD DAM CLIFF!.

Thank god for sunglasses because I was crying like a baby! Moments I thought ‘HELL NO’ you want me to leap over that gap in the path with only the sea below?. Traumatised? That was one way of putting it.It’s funny and I can giggle about it now to myself. But had you laughed back then, I swear I would have punched you square in the face or one better… pushed you over the cliff. Lol…. While I was dealing with all of this I didn’t realise my friend Francesca ALSO suffered from Vertigo. The point that I realised this was when I was already on a safe path on the cliff and looking back all I see is Francesca sitting down clearly not able to make the leap of death!

Ferragosto we FINALLY after years of trying to organise this 11 of us rented 2 boats to sail away along the coast of Castlemare del Golfo!Not only do I suffer from Vertigo I had a fear of swimming in deep water. The thing is that I actually know how to swim…. And float…. So your thinking what’s the problem right? I don’t know just knowing I cant touch the floor when I get tired freaks me out!

So here it goes.. I threw out the floating doughnut and ta da… I couldn’t believe how easy it was to float and swim in deep water. It was amazing…. You couldn’t get me out of the water.. I felt like Nemo for the first time in the big ocean. Come and find me people because there is a whole other world down here.

I have promised myself once a year we got to rent a boat and I need to be more prepared. The things I need for next time are:

Fins

Underwater camera

Mask to see underwater

Thank god a few of the guys were better prepared and I had the opportunity to look under water. All I can say was that it was amazing… seeing all the fish was beautiful!!!Nothing this good could go without one form of drama happening. Apart from the first stop our anchor getting stuck under a rock but on our final stop we all jumped off to explore, but when we went to swim back to our boat had somehow managed to move 1000 miles away. Thinking about it now it was so funny how your giving it your all but it’s absolutely useless as the current keeps you in the exact same spot!Was anyone on the boat? Yes, Luca… but he was fast asleep and none the wiser that we was sailing away into the sunset. LOL

Luckily Frank was on the second boat and drove closer to us and picked us up and saved the day…. Oh summer I do miss you.